Using outside professionals to help your company implement lead generation programs gives 43% better results than hiring your own lead generation person and it costs a lot less. Case closed!

Why is this the case? Check out The Problem with Reliance on Junior Marketing Folks.

So many firms try to implement lead generation programs in-house, (Just do a search on Linkedin for “lead generation” to see how amazingly popular it is.) it’s useful to share some facts from NNC Services white paper which did a great job of comparing in-house lead generation programs with outsourced b2b lead generation.  (Click the link to see the original post.)

There are some challenges and problems they found with in-house sales lead generation:

• Lack of follow-up on events and telemarketing — In-house resources are rarely, if ever able to follow up on a consistent and effective manner. For instance, one company we know very well did a very popular webinar and shared the recording. But they failed to use the “Rule of Five” as espoused by B2B marketing expert Ardath Albee. Failing to split the audio for a podcast in iTunes, do a video interview in YouTube, narrate a PowerPoint and post it to SlideShare, create an e-book, write and post blog articles, etc. meant they missed many content marketing opportunities. Even something as simply creating a chapter indexed version of the webinar helps a lot.
  Opportunities like this to generate quality sales leads are far too valuable to waste.
• Feedback from the market is not used - A deep understanding of customers is needed for effective BtoB lead generation.  These are called Buyer Personas. But in-house resources almost never do the level of research needed for optimal results. For instance, a lot of software companies sell to Chief Information Officers, but a CIO study found three archetypes with three different goals, requiring three different content approaches. The results of that study was documented in the book Content Rules.
• Incorrect targeting — Not talking to the right level means poor results.  However, most in-house resources stop their research when they find an interested executive.  Often this lower level executive is a dead end. Outside services like the B2B bead generation company Find New Customers does complete dossiers on target companies so you always target the ideal executives.
• Using a unique channel - This is one of the biggest problems with in-house lead generation programs trying to generate quality sales leads.  They tend to rely on single tactics, such as email campaigns or telemarketing.  Since everyone else is doing the same thing, there’s too much noise to be heard and few sales leads emerge.
• Leaving it to the team’s junior - Leaving the activity on the sales team’s newcomer is one fatal mistake since the time spent in inappropriate meetings with the wrong prospects often results and the quality of sales leads suffers. Deeply experienced professionals like those found at the marketing lead generation company Find New Customers have the talent and experience to produce dramatic results.

If there are problems with doing b2b lead generation in-house, what are the advantage of bring in an outside firm who are experts in lead generation - like Find New Customers or NuSpark Marketing?

This white paper makes the point that you do not get more sales leads from outsourced b2b lead generation, but you get much better sales leads that are likely to close.  After all, closed business is what we all need.

Here is why:

• Clear client profiling. (Buyer Personas) Lead generation experts use multiple methods to find out every bit of useful information about a prospect and to draw out a complete picture: likes/dislikes, need and behaviors.  These specialists also understand how customers buy, so they translate your selling process to the customer’s perspective.
• Correct Targeting. Outsourced experts ensure you talk to the person(s) who make the buying decision — through deep research.
• Qualified Sales Leads. You don’t waste time on a meeting with someone who hasn’t expressed a clear need for your products or services, or who lacks the budget to purchase them.  You only get meetings with people who understand what you are selling, need it and can afford to buy it.
• Follow-up and feedback. All opportunities are followed up until they become qualified sales leads or are determined not to be valuable. Also, the outsourced lead generation team has the ability to use market feedback to get more leads.
• Multi-channel approach. A good lead generation partner will use a complex mist of sales lead generating channels — including networking, online and off-line, as well as social networks.  This significantly improves the results of the campaigns.
• More confidence. It takes 6 months to a year to consider if an in-house team member focused on sales lead generation is qualified and producing results for your lead generation programs.  By comparison, you can usually evaluate an outsourced lead generation resource in a month or two.
• Less cost. Compared to salary, benefits, training, taxes, ramp-up time, etc. an outside expert can cost up to 65% less.

Conclusions:

An outsourced b2b lead generation partner - and you have many to chose from including NuSpark Marketing, AcquireB2B, Bluebird Strategies,  Find New Customers - can deliver better sales leads than you can, at much lower cost, with reduced risk and increasing your opportunities for improved fiscal results.  3 months of b2b lead generation outsourcing brings you the same results as 12 months of in-house lead generation.

Bottom line: 43% better results by outsourcing B2B lead generation

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I was the host of the Focus Roundtable on B2B Lead Generation

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